This invention relates generally to gardening accessories and more particularly concerns supports for long stemmed plants such as tomato plants and the like.
Most known plant supports, such as those described by Stuckey in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,519,162 and 4,534,129, Orthman in U.S. Pat. No. 3,731,429 and Wiswell in U.S. Pat No. 1,587,740, use rings supported on only one side by a stake. To counter the leverage applied at the unsupported side of the ring by the plant stem and branches, heavy, clumsy and expensive stakes and rings are required. A more balanced center stake plant support is described by Thoeni in U.S. Pat. No. 1,556,373, but this device also requires heavy, clumsy and expensive stakes, rings and hubs.
These problems and others were solved by my improved center stake plant support described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,593. However, the attachment of the plant support ring to the main stake is still somewhat complicated and must be repeated for each level of plant supporting ring employed. Furthermore, while the cost and ease of operation of my improved support were better than for previously known devices, the number of separate components required in a multi-ring arrangement and the length of the center stake required to support the full grown height of the plant leave room for further improvement.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide an inexpensive center stake plant support. Another object of this invention is to provide a center stake plant support which is easy to assemble. A further object of this invention is to provide a center stake plant support having a simple mechanism for connection of plant support rings to the center stake. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a center stake plant support to which multiple ring assemblies can be readily added as the height of the plant increases. And it is an object of this invention to provide a center stake plant support to which multiple rings can be secured by a single connecting means.